What does a new dam in far north Queensland have to do with a traffic snarl in western Sydney? Nothing at all actually, despite some heroic connect-the-dots efforts by Labor ministers last week. But the question sets up some thinking about frontier politics and their impact on our federal election contest.

The first parliamentary week of the year spotlighted Labor pitching to an outer-urban ''frontier'' - western Sydney, where it is in dire political trouble; and it revealed the Coalition's early thinking about how to court Katter country.

Katter is nipping at the heels of Labor's blue-collar base. It's perhaps not widely understood that he is strongly pro-union.

Labor meant to fire up on western Sydney. The Coalition did not mean to have a discussion about northern Australia and how you could develop it through differential taxation, infrastructure projects and population measures - that was a leak, and a helpful one.

Helpful to Labor because it could renew its efforts to portray Tony Abbott as a wild-eyed whack job - a man of uncosted retro thought-bubbles, unconstitutional tax regimes and forced public service relocations from Penrith to Karratha (There was even a hashtag, #troppotony).

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And helpful to voters in the sense of shining a light - not so much on the policy detail itself because, in fairness to Abbott and his colleagues, that was work-in-progress, but on the thinking behind it.

Developmentalism is having a renaissance. Gags about the ghost of Joh Bjelke-Petersen wafting around miss the point that this isn't actually nostalgia - this is present thinking from elements of the mining industry and the once tinder-dry champion of free markets, the Institute of Public Affairs; and, politically at least, a response to the Katter effect of 2013.

Bob Katter's Australian Party wants Senate balance of power. If his movement can raise the requisite cash and not implode, it's at least a possibility. So we need to start thinking beyond the usual media narratives about Katter: the man-in-the-hat stunts promulgated by the man himself feeding the contemporary ''chooks''; the predictably ''outrageous'' utterances of publicity seeking KAP candidates.

Voters need to be able to consider Katter's world view and what it might mean if he's in a position to influence policy-making directly through parliamentary horse-trading.

His indirect influence is already evident. Given the on-the-ground appeal of Katter's new-fashioned developmentalism, it will embolden the Nationals to dream big. It will prompt a lot of enthusiastic talk by folks like Queensland senator Barnaby Joyce about building dams in Queensland.

Frontier dreaming is popular - a recurrent strain in our history and the history of countries where new inhabitants have occupied territory and set up thriving outposts of civilisation. One visit to Charters Towers puts Bob Katter immediately in context: the grand buildings of the gold rush era, over-sized and incongruous in their landscape.

But just how big and activist government gets is always a matter of contention within the Coalition between economic dries and those who would be pure, but not yet. An outbreak of Barnabyism always makes for a bit of tetchiness - and someone was troubled enough by that northern Australia policy draft to leak it. Not a great sign.

But Katter isn't only a problem for the Coalition. He's also a problem for Labor in a state where the party is counting on a political recovery of sorts.

Katter is nipping at the heels of Labor's blue-collar base. It's perhaps not widely understood that he is strongly pro-union. In addition to being a big government man, the ethanol industry's chief spruiker and an unapologetic protectionist, Katter supports the return of the old industrial relations architecture - conciliation and arbitration. He's also fiercely opposed to foreign workers coming to Australia on temporary migration programs, and is busy telling his constituency it is Labor that's letting them in to take their jobs on lower wages and conditions just to please billionaires like Gina Rinehart.

This sort of populism is hard yards for Labor, and cuts across its efforts to woo back blue-collar votes after the ructions over the carbon price.

''Keep the cheap foreigners out'' is not only a pleasing political message for the ''new working class'' - Katter's term for his voters, the blokes who once would have inherited the family farm but, given it has more-then-likely gone to the wall, now work down the mines. It's also a fairly unsubtle pitch for union donations.

The temporary foreign workers issue is red hot within the union movement, and it stirs and divides the Labor caucus in the same way that developmentalism sends ripples around the Coalition party room. There are genuine philosophical differences between occupants of the same party.

Unions have donated to Katter before. When I visited Charters Towers just before Christmas for a chat about the political year, he showed me a hard hat in the shape of a stetson that Dean Mighell of the Electrical Trades Union bought for him in Texas.

And when it comes to labour market regulation, Katter is more or less on the same page as the Greens on some policies, which could make life interesting for either a newly elected prime minister Tony Abbott - or a re-elected Julia Gillard.

Katharine Murphy is national affairs correspondent of The Age and writes The Pulse blog for The National Times.

202 comments

A streak of Pauline Hanson there . I am sure Katter's party would be popular up in Queensland and among the National voters. I wonder what Abbott think of this .

Commenter

Mason Ang

Location

North Ryde

Date and time

February 11, 2013, 3:35AM

I can see another opening here for Hanson and Abbott should resurrect his "slush" fund that he used to get rid of her and now use it to get her back on board the Abbott so called "conservatives".

It would be such a good look for Abbott to be pushing big mining across the Top End and have Katter and Hanson screaming "no more immigrants".

That should get all the votes from the Western Sydney unemployed.

Commenter

J. Fraser

Location

Queensland

Date and time

February 11, 2013, 6:02AM

Another point not mentioned above, is the Duopoly issue with Coles & Woolworths.

In regional areas where you have limited choice, the buyer is being ripped off by them and on the flip side the producers (surrounding the town) are being squeezed out of business by them. I know in outlying areas in my region they can forgive quite a bit of 'nutbaggery' if it will help them retain their livings and give more options to the consumer.

This is a particular issue that I think both major parties need to think about addressing if they want to make sure Katter (with a number of his ex-nationals candidates) don't bite too hard into their vote?

Commenter

YaThinkN

Location

Sunshine Coast

Date and time

February 11, 2013, 6:58AM

Wrong. This guy wants millions, and millions of people in North QLD, about 60 million.

He's certainly going for the One Nation voters though, only to do the very thing they don't want.

Commenter

Neil

Date and time

February 11, 2013, 7:19AM

60 million people? Wow. That's a big number. And he's after the one-nation voters too? That's like another 800 million people!I can seem them all now, walking in to vote, questioning their own existance....

Commenter

Weary

Location

Sydney

Date and time

February 11, 2013, 8:29AM

What is it about Labor supporters? When in doubt revert to Pauline Hanson or workchoices.

Commenter

cape republic

Location

jagajaga

Date and time

February 11, 2013, 8:30AM

Katter = just another union mouth-piece.

Commenter

chrissy

Date and time

February 11, 2013, 9:01AM

It's because Labor supporters have lost all their reasoning abilities and fall in line just like the pet shop parrots that they & their party have become. Just watch question time or any media interview for confirmation of this. They all parrot the same lines ad nauseum, from the PM on down.

Commenter

chrissy

Date and time

February 11, 2013, 9:03AM

Mason, I imagine Abbott is getting ready for a smear campaign against KAP. doing what he does best, smearing. Only drawback is Katter despite his eccentricities has always been a 'what you see you get' type of bloke.Don't underestimate his popularity in some areas.Remember driving through Charters Towers and spotting his electorate office a few years ago.Graffiti had over sprayed BK MP and replaced with BK PM, so funny I took a pic.He will definetly erode the Lib vote given his loose arrangement with Clive and disaffected LNPs with Newman.QLD in particular will prove interesting.ALP will be busy trying to recover the blue collars.

Commenter

A country gal

Date and time

February 11, 2013, 9:05AM

“It's because coalition supporters have lost all their reasoning abilities and fall in line just like the pet shop parrots that they & their party have become. Just watch question time or any media interview for confirmation of this. They all parrot the same lines ad nauseum, from opposition "leader" on down.